Offside Ref

So the FA have decided to let Defoe off the hook for the whole biting thing saying that FIFA rules don’t allow them to punish him sufficiently because the ref has already punished him. I got one thing to say, It’s a totally cop out and rubbish.

I was quite surprised that a lot of people are divided over this and appear to fall into one of two camps. The ‘it was nothing, play on’ brigade or the ‘Physical abuse is not allowed, punish him’ brigade (I’m in). For me it’s a cut and dry case any attempt to cause hurt is violent conduct (That’s an automatic red card according to the laws of the game).

Now biting can hurt even if it doesn’t leave a mark, so claims of he wasn’t even marked don’t wash with me. Is it acceptable for someone to even try and bite you in the street? No, so why should it be on the football field. If you are fouled on the pitch then the ref deals with it, you don’t retaliate. Martin Jol’s nibble comments are total crap, what does he think Defoe was trying, foreplay?

Ref’s are only human (they sometimes make mistakes) so the fact he didn’t send of Defoe although disappointing is understandable but the FA have to follow through, which they haven’t done and that is very disappointing.

Clearly Jermain Defoe forgot to eat his Monster Munch crisps before going to play football and decided instead to try and eat West Ham’s Mascherano.  So I’m nominating Jermain Defoe and Martin Jol as my Villains of the week.  Defoe for attempting to eat Mascherano and Jol for trying to defend Defoe’s action.

This case like other recent incidents presents the FA with a problem since the rules don’t allow for action to be taken on offences that have already received punishment, despite the fact that the punishment may not have been appropriate. Although the FA have in exceptional cases ignored this rule.

Personally I think that the panel that sits and looks at video evidence should be allowed to over rule any decision based on what they have seen. Players can already be exonerated, why not the other way?  It may keep some honest if they know will get caught and punished, though I doubt it.

As far as I’m concerned the FA should throw the book, followed by the kitchen sink at Ben Thatcher.  There is absolutely no call for the foul he committed against Pedro Mendes.  He should have been sent off by the ref and that would of made the aftermath easier for the FA to deal with.

Currently as it stands the FA have to deem this to be an exceptional case before they can suspend him or take any other action, as it stands all they can do is fine him if they decide it was reckless challenge.  Now I don’t want to see players suspended but I think this really does call for it. To knock a player out cold and have them fit on the way to hospital is unacceptable and must be eradicated from the game.

Ben Thatcher is also being investigated by the police and it has to be said that if you did that in the street you’d expect the police to have at least a passing interest.

If ever there was a case for a fifth official with access to video replays it was in this Saturday’s, Everton vs Watford game.  The game end 2-1 to Everton, with Everton being awarded a penalty which should have never been given. 

The penalty was awarded for handball in the area when the replay clearly shows the ball hitting Chris Powell (Watford) in the middle of the forehead.  This gets us to ask did ref have a clear view, did the linesman see anything.  While the last call does go to the referee and rightly so, they do have assistants that sometimes refs don’t always appear to make the best use of (probably not the case but it does feel like it sometimes).

So lets assume the ref was in a position to see and was a quirk of the angle making it look like handball or the linesman made a similar call and told the ref, and it was just one of those calls in football that wasn’t really anyone’s fault but was just a bad one because of a line of sight quirk. 

Now I’m not really one to advocate the use of video evidence and certainly wouldn’t want the game stopped every two minutes to look at something but have come to the conclusion that where video evidence is available it should be used to aid in deciding game changing decisions such as penalty calls, sending offs, goals and maybe one or two other things.

Increasingly sportsmanship appears to be losing its way in the beautiful game with increased incidents of diving; calling for players to be sent off or carded, the list just goes on and on.

This bad sportsmanship looks set to kill off the unwritten rule that the ball is kicked out of play so that injured players can recieve treatment.  The Premier League now wants referee’s to decide when play should be stopped as some players have be faking injuring to break up oppenent attacks.

If the ref stops the game, it will result in a drop ball, if the ball is kicked out of play then it’s a normal throwing.  This should also stop controversial situations arising like Marc Overmars’ goal for Arsenal against Sheffield United in their 1999 FA Cup fifth-round tie.

Since this is not part of the football laws it come down to everyone to play there part to enforce it and I think they will as managers will be telling their teams that the opposition will use throws to attack and so should they.  The lower leagues have decided not to use this as they believe it’s currently not a problem there but will keep an eye open.

I can see this sticking and propergating down to the lower leagues and out to other leagues around the world.  It’s sad that it has come to this but it does appear to be the right thing to do for the integrity of the game.

I was hoping my next post was going to be about some nice, unfortunately it’s not especially so for West Ham fans.  Dean Ashton, who was going to get his first cap for England broke his ankle.

What I did find odd was West Ham’s lack of outcry at how it was unacceptable / unfair / etc. and that they want significant compensation.  Instead from West Ham boss Alan Pardew we get:

We are absolutely devastated. It’s a massive blow for Deano and his family, and for everybody here at West Ham United.

We are extremely disappointed by the news but, on a positive note, we still have four quality strikers at this club, which will suppress the blow somewhat.

We look forward to a speedy recovery from Deano and hope to see him back in action very soon.

Not a single statement of outrage or call for compensation made in public so far (they are probably speaking direct to the FA about compensation).

I began to wonder is this part of their media policy, which changed lasted year to be more friendly and foster good stories.  There is an article about Phil Hall the man behind this change at West Ham that was in yesterday’s Independent for anyone that’s interested. 

It would certainly make sense if it was part of their media strategy, although the tabloids and the rest of the media would probably love nothing more than for West Ham to whip up the Club vs Country question but it certainly wouldn’t endear the club or manager to the average England fan and would produce a lot of negative press, something which West Ham are keen to avoid.

Last season West Ham earned a lot of friends from their performances on the pitch and their conduct off. It looks as if they have continued where they left off and credit to them I say.